How Growing Your Instagram Followers Can Help Small Businesses

Instagram, Facebook’s hashtag-happy cousin, is now home to 1.15 billion active users. It’s a place where imagery leads the way, engaging captions tell the stories, and influencers, well, they influence the masses. But should your small business jump on the bandwagon? Is the ROI there? The short answer is — YES. A platform with over 1 billion users holds the awesome potential for any business!

Here’s a closer look at just how growing an Instagram follower count can help your small business. Plus, find answers to the questions small business owners are asking about Instagram. 

5 Powerful Ways Instagram Followers Can Help Your Small Business

An Instagram “follower” is a person who has opted-in to your content on IG. They like your brand and want to see it when they open their feed. It’s the digital equivalent of someone wanting to pop into your store location each day just to see what’s going on. 

As a business owner, this creates a huge opportunity for you. But how can Instagram followers directly benefit your business? Here are 5 of the most powerful ways. 

1- Always Be Top-of-Mind

Instagram enables you to find and connect with the people who are interested in your offerings. As you begin to earn followers and post regular content, you will stay in their awareness. But, why is that important?

Consider that 75% of shoppers say they are more likely to buy from a brand they recognize. And think about your own experience. If you want a coffee, for example, you think about where you can get it. Starbucks, Peet’s, and your local cafe come to mind. But, oh, your local cafe shared a new pumpkin spice latte with whipped cream and cinnamon on your IG feed this morning. You want that!

As a small business owner, when someone wants what you offer, your brand should pop into their head. If you’re on a person’s Instagram feed every day, you can stay top-of-mind. Further, you can give them an ongoing stream of reasons to pick you!

2- Create Sticky Customers

What happens when you don’t see a friend for a while and don’t keep in touch? You drift apart and often form new friendships. Similarly, relationships with customers require consistent nurturing. Instagram enables you to keep in touch with thousands and even millions of people at the same time. And each follower experiences your messaging in their personal feed. 

As a result, you can keep your existing customers engaged and loyal to your brand, preventing churn. 

3- Sales Is a Side Effect

When you have an engaged audience of loyal followers who love your business, you create more opportunities for sales. Consider that one in three Instagram users have reportedly made a product purchase after seeing it on Instagram. 

While you don’t want to be overly promotional on social media, you will have the opportunity to convert your follower base into buyers. With the right strategy (learn more below), revenue growth is a side effect of a thriving IG presence. 

4- Build a Digital Customer Base

Instagram also presents you with the opportunity to build a digital customer base. If your customers are mostly offline, it can be harder to track and stay in touch with them. When you ask your audience to follow you on Instagram either by using Instagram follower apps or other organic ways, you gain a roster of contacts in one place. 

We recommend using Instagram as a way to build your audience and engage with them. Using hashtags on Instagram can provide the opportunity for your post to be visited by many audiences who have the same interests as your followers.

AiGrow eases the way you can search relevant hashtags in addition to many other contributions it can make to the automation of your Instagram account. The superiority of such AI tool is that you do not have to manually search for hashtags. Just enter your keyword and get 30 hashtags within less than a second. All you need to do is to select your photo, write a caption, choose among the hashtags offered to you, and either post it immediately or schedule it for a time and date. 

However, aim to also build an email list of your followers so you can communicate off the platform. This ensures IG doesn’t hold the only keys to your audience. 

5- Monetize Through Online Offerings

Another perk of a large IG follower base is you can provide them with additional value through online offerings. For example, you can offer tutorials, ebooks, guides, courses, email newsletters, and more in your industry, which can all be monetized. 

Growing your Instagram followers as a small business is really a no-brainer. But how do you get followers?

How to Get More Followers on Instagram

You may have heard about influencer marketing and other tactics but aren’t sure where to start. Don’t worry. Here are some resources to help you out:

Frequently Asked Questions about Instagram for Small Business

Now, here’s a look at the top questions small business owners are asking about Instagram. 

Is Instagram good for small businesses?

Instagram is a platform with over a billion monthly active users. As a small business owner, it gives you a tremendous opportunity to build a following of people interested in your brand and offerings. You can build brand awareness, strengthen customer loyalty, and more. Learn more about the benefits above. 

Is it worth getting an Instagram business account? 

Business accounts offer a few advantages over regular personal Instagram accounts. They give you access to:

  • Analytics to track post-performance
  • Extra features (swipe-up after 10,000 followers)
  • The ability to boost posts
  • A contact button

We recommend IG business accounts for small business owners. 

How do small businesses use Instagram?

Small businesses can use Instagram as a place to post content and stories that attract and engage prospective customers. Through an effective strategy, you can put your content in front of people who are likely to be interested. As a result, you gain followers you can nurture into customers. 

How do you get a small business sticker on Instagram?

Instagram recently launched the “support small business” sticker. It allows people to add the sticker in an Instagram story to support a business. Once they click the sticker, they can search for a small business to support, click it, and then share the post with their network. 

You can widen your reach as a small business owner by asking your followers to share the sticker and support your business. A popular way to get users to support you using the sticker is by making it a requirement in a contest. 

My small business is a marketing agency. Should I use Instagram?

Like any other small business, marketing agencies can greatly benefit from using Instagram. If you are offering Instagram marketing services, you should show off your skills on your own profile. If you have a large follower base and lots of engagement, that provides social proof to your potential clients. Learn more about ways marketing agencies can grow. 

How can I promote my business on Instagram for free?

To promote your business for free on Instagram, you need to build a base of engaged followers. When you post regularly to educate, entertain, and interact with your followers, you will gain their trust and favor. As a result, they will come to you when they need your products or services. You can also weave in occasional promotional messaging to convert followers into customers.

Grow Your Instagram Followers, Grow Your Small Business

Instagram is a beneficial place to be for all small businesses because you can build a thriving community around your brand. The more people you interact with, the more opportunities you will have. That’s the bottom line. It can be a bit confusing at first to get the ball rolling but there are tons of resources available to help you along the way. In time, growing your Instagram followers can work as a catalyst for expedited business growth.

Have questions or Instagram small business ideas to share? We’d love to hear from you below! 


Author Bio: 

Jessica Walrack is a professional freelance writer who creates blog posts for Fundbox.com. She loves to share the ins and outs of digital marketing to help brands reach their next level of success.